No more hiding
by mermaiddoodles1996
Summary: Callen and Nell have been in a secret relationship for over a year now and they are tired of hiding it. I hope you like it, let me know what you think should happen! :)
1. Chapter 1

The early morning sun began creeping through the crack in the curtains, lighting up the room. Callen had been awake for many hours prior to this, thinking about anything and everything, he had long left the bedroom not wanting to wake up Nell, she had always slept for much longer than him. He always chuckles when he remembers how the two came to be and also how they have managed to keep such a big secret from the team, however he wasn't kidding himself, Henrietta Lang most definitely knew that there something going on between the two agents. Even Sam didn't know, he was currently under the impression that Callen was enjoying a romance with Arkady's daughter Anna, she was lovely she just wasn't Nell. Nell had completely changed Callen's outlook on, well, everything. After Joelle he had given up on attempting to hold a meaningful relationship with anyone, a relationship couldn't never last when it was built on lies. But this was different, they knew each other, they knew what they did, the dangers they faced every day, they understood. Yes, it was hard seeing Nell in potential danger and not doing anything about it, but if he let his feeling get the better of him he would be risking not only the operation but the safety of everyone involved and if that was to happen they wouldn't be able to continue this. And for the first time, Callen was happy, he had someone to go home to and for the first time in what forever he lived in a home it was no longer just a house, each room had a full set of furniture he had begun keeping personal affects. And he knew in his heart that this was all down to Nell, she had opened his heart to so many different things. He couldn't imagine life without her and to the special agent this was a terrifying prospect for as long he can remember he relied on no one, but now it was different, what he had with Nell was different to anything he had ever experienced. As silly as it sounded he was scared that all of this would go away as fast as it happened and he would go back to being 'lone wolf' Callen who had a house with only a sleeping bag and a fridge full of beer. So he had decided that he was going to have show Nell Jones just how much she meant to him.

As the sun began to fill the entire room, Nell began to wake up instantly she noticed she was the only person remaining in the bed and the other half of the bed was no longer warm indicating that Callen hadn't been here for a while. When she first started this relationship with the senior agent every time she awoke to an empty she would be consumed by fear. Fear that he had gone and wasn't coming back she knew it was going to happen, it was inevitable, she just didn't know when it was going to happen and truth be told a small amount of fear still lingered even after all this time. But she wasn't worried when she woke up anymore she knew he would still be there, he was either off in a different part of the house occupying his mind with something or he had gone on a run. It was almost as if he was allergic to sleep. As she got out of bed she reached to her phone to see one new text message of Eric.

 _Hey. I hope you had a nice time with the girls last night.  
Have a nice weekend see you Monday  
Eric : )_

She felt bad for lying to him, he was one of her closest friends but even so she couldn't tell him about Callen, she couldn't even tell him that she was seeing someone because no matter what name she gave she knew for a fact that Eric would be carrying out a full background search on whomever she had made up the moment she turned her back.  
"What lie did you use for this weekend then?" Callen's voice interrupted her train of thought, she hadn't noticed him entering into the room as he leaned lazily against the wardrobe, not that she was surprised he was alarmingly good at catching her unaware.  
"This weekend's elaborate lie was that Katie's boyfriend had broken up with her and she was in need of a girls weekend with no males in sight" she replied already knowing that Callen was referring to their co-worker Eric.  
"But I thought Katie was the one who had recently moved in her boyfriend?" Callen quizzed her.  
"Well remembered, but they are always breaking up and getting back together again, it will probably happen soon anyway." She replied, impressed he had actually paid attention to her attempts in explaining who all of her friends were with.  
"I'm sorry you have to keep lying about us, I know it must be hard keeping things from them." Callen quietly said as he moved across the room to sit next to Nell on the bed.  
Nell was taken aback by this, she had always understood that their relationship must always remain a secret for them to keep their jobs as it was a policy that co-workers couldn't date. Luckily for Kensi and Deeks, Deeks was still employed by LAPD so technically they weren't co-workers, lucky buggers. "It's alright, for us to have this relationship we have to keep it a secret." Nell replied wondering just where this conversation was going.  
"I know that, but we have been keeping this secret for a year and a half now Nell, I understand why we did it to begin with, but it's different now Nell, I know how I feel about you this isn't some fling or short-lived relationship this is real" Callen said rather urgently.  
There was several moments of silence as Nell processed what she had just heard, was Callen saying what she thought he was saying that he truly believed their relationship was going to work. The silence was driving Callen crazy as soon as the words left his mouth he knew there was no going back that now he had no other option than to man up and tell the I.T analyst just exactly how much she meant to him.  
"Nell what I'm trying to say is that I love you, you mean more to me than you could ever comprehend and I can't bear to think of my life without you in it." Callen rushed to say the words that he had been wanting to say for a long time. "And I know that this may come as a shock and if you don't feel the same that's ok, this isn't what we signed up for at the beginning but I can't hide how I feel about you anymore not to you, to the team or to anyone. I think ..."  
"Callen I love you too, I always have and I have just been afraid that you didn't feel the same way that I do. And I would like more than anything to tell everyone just how I feel about you but you know what the NCIS policy is. Co-workers cannot under any circumstances date and I don't know what I would do without my job and I know you feel the same way." Nell interrupted, feeling very flustered this was not the conversation she had pictured herself having this morning.  
"I know that Nell, it's all I have been thinking about for the past few months but I think I have come up with a solution. There is nothing saying you couldn't work with your spouse." Callen explained as he tried to work up his courage to do what he knew he needed to do. So as he slowly got off the bed and began to kneel on the floor in front of the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, in that moment he knew he was making the right decision. And audible gasp left Nell's mouth as he reached into his trouser pocket and produced a small black box. "Nell Jones, you have turned my world upside down, you have changed me for the better and I would very much like to spend the rest of my life with you. So Nell, will you marry me?"

Nell felt slightly dazed as she sat on the edge of her bed. Was she even awake? Had the senior agent really just asked her to marry her? Had G 'I have no emotions' Callen said he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her? She was soon pulled out of her thoughts when she realised she hadn't give him an answer.  
"Yes, yes of course I will marry you." Nell blurted out as she shot of the bed to kneel next to Callen on the floor and the elated agent slid the elegant ring onto her finger. "You do realise we are going to have to tell the team now?"

Callen chuckled just thinking of this. "Let's maybe wait until tomorrow to open that particular can of worms."


	2. Chapter 2

"Nell, if you continue pacing like that there will be no more floorboards left in this office." Callen pointed out as he watched amusedly as the IT analyst nervously walked the length of OPS as the two waited for the rest of the team to join them so they could tell them their happy news. Well if you go by the facial expressions of Nell right now you could easily be mistaken about it.

"Is this a wise idea?" Nell fretted as she stopped pacing to look at Callen who was so calm it was beginning to annoy her. "How are you not worried right now? What will they say? Will we get fired?" As Nell began to panic even more now as she began to list all of the things that could go wrong. Callen realised just how worried Nell was, and it wasn't because he himself wasn't just as worried about all of these things happening too. It was just that he decided long ago that he would much rather be with Nell and lose his job then lose Nell, so he had long decided if Hetty and Granger didn't take the news well he would hang up his special agent shoes and put on a new pair where he lives in domestic bliss with a certain redhead.

Callen crossed the room to Nell where he placed a reassuring kiss onto her forehead. "Hey, don't worry we are in this together. No matter what happens here today we have each other and that is all that matters" he whispered into her ear as he heard approaching voices meaning that soon it will all be out in the open and out of their hands as to what will happen to them.

Sam enters first, slightly confused as to why he had been summoned by Callen and Nell, if it was a case it would have been Nell and Eric. As the rest of team follow closely behind, Callen decides he should do this after all he was the one who proposed to Nell. He steps forward and looks at the confused faces and clears his throat as he begins to mentally prepare himself and small hand slips into his and gives him a reassuring squeeze.  
"Nell and I have some news we would like to share with you." He pauses, after this there is no going back. "The two of us have been seeing each other, outside of work for some time now and last night we got engaged". He feels Nell tense beside him and looks at the faces in front of him as he tries to see what their response will be. "Now I understand some of you might see this as something that could affect the quality of our work but I can assure you that we will maintain professional boundaries at work. Of course if you still think that this will negatively affect the working of the team, I will happily request a transfer to another unit or if this will still cause issues I will resign. But all I request is that Nell is allowed to keep her job." Callen rushes through his speech to just get it over with. The only thing that stops him is the snigger that escapes Deeks' mouth as Kensi reaches into her pocket and passes him some money. He also notices a similar scenario occur between Eric and Sam and also with Hetty and Granger.

"G, did you really think we didn't know about the two of you. This could be one of the worst kept secret ever. The only thing we couldn't decide was whether you would tell us the two of you were engaged or pregnant." Sam replies as his partner looks more confused by the minute whilst poor Nell has gone white as a sheet.

"Yes Mr Callen I really did think you were smarter than this, you do realise that you work a group of people who are all trained in noticing things like this." Hetty pointed out as the nervous couple were taken aback by this. They all knew, every single one of them.

"So you knew? You all knew that we were together, when did you all find out?" Nell piped in, feeling less nervous about what would happen next because if they have known for all of this time they could have put a stop to it a long time ago.

"It was me that found out first." Eric stepped forward and answered, he had been quiet until this and Nell felt awful the two were so close, she considered him her best friend and she had kept this big secret from him for so long. "18 months ago I had stayed late looking for a new lead on the case we were struggling on, we had just managed to put GPS on our suspect so as I was tracking their location. I saw that the two of you were at the same restaurant together, at first I didn't think anything of it but whilst I was looking for our suspects I noticed that the two of you had also left together and the next day you told me that you had stayed in all by yourself the night before. I didn't tell anyone though." As Eric explained how he knew about their relationship Nell realised that the evening Eric was describing was actually the first date the two went on and to begin with it wasn't a date but by the end of the evening the two of them knew that the way they felt for each other was no longer how you feel about a co-worker. Eric had known about this from the very beginning.

The next person to step forward was Sam. "I found out about a month later, I was going for a run around your neighbourhood G and I thought I would stop by and see if you fancied coming with me. As I ran up your path, I saw you in your front room talking to someone and that person turned out to be Nell." Sam explained with the look of a proud father on his face. "I'm very happy for the both of you and all I ask is that I'm the best man at the wedding." Everybody laughed at this and then Hetty stepped forward.

"Mr Callen. Miss Jones. I would like to congratulate you on your impending nuptials. And regarding your jobs, I see no reason for anything to change your work ethic during the course of your relationship has not faltered and as long it continues like this I have no qualms with it." Hetty said and as she was speaking Callen thought it was silly of them to actually think they could hide something like this from the team, especially Hetty. Hell, she probably knew about it before the two of them did. "And I think this calls for a celebration."

"Well I suppose we do need to throw a housewarming party seeing as you have moved in with me," Callen said looking over at Nell to see what she thought. "How does Friday night sound to you all?" As everyone agreed with this suggestion they all started to filter out of OPS to get on with their day. Callen pressed a kiss onto Nell's forward and squeezed her hand for good luck knowing how much she had been dreading to find out what Eric's response would be and left the two analysts alone.

"So…" Eric said not quite knowing where to start.

"I'm so sorry I didn't tell you Eric and I feel absolutely awful for lying to you for so long. I didn't want to but there was so much at risk," Nell quickly babbled trying to justify her actions to her friend. Whether they would still be friends at the end of the day was what worried her.

"Nell its fine," Eric began. "Was I upset to begin with? Of course I was. But I soon realised just why you were keeping it from me and I completely agree with why you did it. And the longer you kept it from me the more I knew just how much he meant to you. I'm so happy for you Nell. For the both of you. You both deserve so much happiness." Well that was it, Nell couldn't stop herself anymore she flung her arms around Eric, hugging him.

"What did I do to get such a good best friend. Oh Eric I don't know where I would be without you!" Nell exclaimed. "So I guess all there is left to do, is to ask you the most important question of them all. Eric will you please be the male version of maid of honour. The man of honour."

Eric laughed at this. "Of course I will! But I draw the line at wearing a dress and carrying a bouquet."


End file.
